37 Year Old Maiden Virgin
By Motoko Shimizu
You know, life is strange. When I was
18, I listened to Cocteau Twins and I thought I would die before I
became 30. Now, I am 37 and went to an Iron Maiden concert for the
first time (my first arena concert in the U.S, too). And yep, it’s good
to be alive and see Maiden live.
On Friday the 13th, my husband and I
took a bus from Port Authority to Continental Airlines Arena. We were
on the Maiden bus: a sea of black Maiden T-shirts and even some
sing-alongs.
At the arena, an ambulance was
already waiting.
After the front act, people continued
to come and come and started to fill the arena. It was mostly a guys’
world: probably 15% women (I thought metal chicks are less cute than
punk chicks) and 1% elementary school kids. One of those kids in a
Maiden shirt walked near the line for beer. Two guys who were strangers
were talking to each other and saying “That kid is going to buy a beer!
What a cool kid! I’d like to adopt him!”.
Iron Maiden played all the songs from
the new album “A Matter of Life and Death,” pretty good catchy songs.
They looked like GI Joes standing on small platforms in a battlefield
set with war theme slides. They reminded me that life is a battle and
we’re just soldiers, too. But these Maiden soldiers were superb ones,
good enough to let us forget about the everyday battles of real life
for 2 hours. Their big actions, virtuosic long guitar solos, and light
shows looked and sounded like an upscale version of Spinal Tap (it was
my first metal concert, too) but at the same time, I felt the strong
power of their continuing originality after so many years.
“Eddie” came up from a huge tank
during the song “Iron Maiden,” which was the last song before the
encore. Encore songs were “2 Minutes to Midnight,” “The Evil That Men
Do” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” During “The Evil That Men Do,” Eddie
had a gun, wore a helmet and walked around. If they’d played a
few more old songs, that would have been a perfect set (besides some
mix problem for the new songs). Although all the new songs were
great, the audience energy was far bigger for the old hits : much more
sing alongs, head bangings and devil horns. Loud “Maiden!” calls were
everywhere after the show was over.
We came home two miniutes after
midnight with great satisfaction. I’m not a Maiden virgin any more.
Review of Iron Maiden at
Continental Airlines Arena, E Rutherford NJ Oct 13, 2006